Prefabricated roof or ceiling panel



' Sept. 8, 1959 w. GREENE PREFABRICATED ROOF OR CEILING PANEL Filed March 12, 1956 INVENTOR Wan; L. Gear/v5 ATTORNEYS United States Patent O PREFABRICATED ROOF OR CEILING PANEL William L. Greene, Annapolis, Md., assignor to Tecfab,

Incorporated, Beltsville, Md., a corporation of Maryland Application March 12, 1956, Serial No. 570,992

1 Claim. (Cl. 7268) This invention relates broadly to building construction and more particularly to prefabricated structural panel members which are especially useful for the construction of heat and sound insulated roofs and ceilings for dwellings and other buildings.

In the art of building construction it is known to use corrugated or channeled members for roofs and ceilings and to'heat and sound insulate such members by the use of rigid insulation of rock wool or other fibrous material supported on the roof panel. Additionally, it has been customary in some instances to close the normally open insulated channels by perforate members which enable sound to pass through the closures and into an air space between the top of the members and the fibrous bat to be absorbed by the bat material. Examples of this type of ceiling or roof structure are illustrated in the patents to W. Kuehne, No. 2,007,374 and to F. J. Taforo, In, No.

2,357,560. In structures of this type, however, the insulating bats serve no structural function at all and they also must be assembled in the roofing units as a separate operation involving additional time and skill which add considerably to the cost of the building.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the disadvantages of the described ceiling or roof construction by the provision of prefabricated monolithic panel units which may be manufactured at one place and easily transported and assembled ata'nother to form in a single operation a sound and; heat insulated roof or ceiling with a minimum of time, skill and expense.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide a roof or ceiling panel member formed of corrugated or channeled sheet metal in which there has been precast, at

lithic roof panel of the described type wherein those channels which would-be normally exposed to the room receive therein aggregate in the upper part thereof to provide an air space therebeneath which may 'be'closed by a perforate closure member which presents to the room a neat planar surface While providing both sound and heat insulation for said room.

Another object of the invention is to provide a roof or ceiling panel of the type mentioned above wherein aggregate in an open bottom channel is elfectively keyed or supported against falling from said channel.

Another object of the invention is to provide a prefabricated heat and sound insulated roof panel composed of aggregate-filled corrugated or channeled members and wherein during manufacture of said panels the aggregate need be applied to only one side of the member to fill the channels normally exposed to the upper side of the roof or ceiling while simultaneously filling to the desired depth the channels normally exposed to the lower or room side of the roof or ceiling.

-10 receive an aggregate material 40 which may be one Other objects and their attendant advantages will become apparent as the following detailed description is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective sectional view of a panel of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a partial longitudinal sectional view of a channel side wall, with aggregate removed, taken sub stantially on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a partial edgewise side elevation of a perforate member for closing the channels normally exposed to a room.

Referring now to the drawings a roof or ceiling panel forming the present invention is illustrated in Fig. 1 and comprises a channeled or corrugated reinforcing member 10 of metallic sheet material bent to form a channel 12 which is normally open to the upper side of the member 10 and alternate channels 14 which are normally open to the lower side of the member 10. The channels 12, 14 are preferably trapezoidal in cross section and have common side walls 16 and fiat tops and bottoms 18, 20 respectively. The member 10 illustrated is shown composed of two channels 14 exposed to the lower side of the member on opposite sides of a single channel 12 exposed to the upper side of the member and through this number of channels has been found preferable for ease of handling, it should be under stood that the member 10 may be formed of as many numbers of alternate channels as desired.

Integral with the lower right and left longitudinal edges of the outermost sidewalls 16 are outwardly projecting flanges 2.2, 24 respectively and integral With the left hand flange 24 is an inverted locking channel 26 adapted to engage an upstanding fin, corresponding to the fin 28 integral with the right hand flange 22, of an adjacent panel member (not shown). The common side walls 16 of the channels 12, 14 contain relatively large apertures 30 equally spaced from each other longitudinally along the length of the panels and adjacent the lower edges of the open-bottom channels 14 are a series of small spaced apertures 32 which are adapted to receive corresponding outwardly projecting tangs 34 integral with the side edges of perforate closure plates 36. These latter members are formed of flat sheet material and are provided with multitudinous small perforations 38 which are adapted to permit the passage of sound through the plates 36 when .these are installed in their position of use as illustrated in Fig. 1. The plates 36 are of relatively flexible material and are removably installed by engaging the tangs 34 on one side with their corresponding apertures 32 in the side walls 16 of the channels 14 and then forcing or bending slightly the plate upwardly until the tangs 34 on the opposite side snap into engagement with the corresponding apertures 32 on the opposite side of the channels 14.

As illustrated in Fig. 1 the channels 12, 14 are adapted of the low Weight aggregates, such as perlite, vermiculite, pumice or an aerated heavier aggregate bonded by a binder which may, if desired, be cement. Such aggregate material has good heat insulating qualities and due to its porosity it is noise absorbent rather than noise reflecting. Because of the novel structural design of the reinforcing member 10 of the invention, it permits the application of the aggregate to both the open bottom channels 14 and the open top channels 12 simultaneously and entirely from the open top channel 12 so that the completed unit is formed in a single application of aggregate. This is accomplished by first placing the corrugated reinforcing member in a suitable mold (not shown) which is provided with a series of flat ridges having a trapezoidal cross section corresponding in size to the desired air space beneath the aggregate in the open bottom channels 14,

The mold, of course, is provided with the necessary confining side walls and when the reinforcing member has been placed in said mold the aggregate in unset condition is poured into the open top channels from whence it flows via the spaced apertures 30 through the side Walls 16 into the space in the open bottom channels 14 above the top of the mold ridges. After a suificient amount of aggregate has been thus applied to fill both the last referred to space in the open bottom channels as well as the entire open top channels, the excess aggregate is squeegeed off to provide an upper aggregate surface that is coplanar with the fiat tops 20 of the open bottom channels 14. It will be observed in Fig. 1 that the left hand outer longitudinal edge of the aggregate is co-planar with the outer longitudinal edge of the inverted locking channel 26 and that the right hand edge of the aggregate is spaced inwardly from the fin 28 a distance equal to the thickness of the sheet material forming the locking channel 26. With this arrangement when thecomposite or reinforced panels have been suitably molded, set, and cured and have been installed in their positions of use to form a ceiling or roof by the interlocking of the channels 26 with the fins 28, the aggregate on one side of the panel fits snugly against the aggregate of the adjacent panel so that no bonding or filler is required between adjacent panels. If desired, however, suitable caulking or grout can be applied between the contiguous upper edges of adjacent panels and to accommodate such caulking the upper longitudinal edges may be slightly beveled as shown at 42 in Fig. 1.

In order that the aggregate in the open bottom channels 14 will remain in place without falling, it will be observed in Fig. 1 that the aggregate in the open-bottom channels 14 is, in effect, merely an extension of the aggregate in the open-top channels 12, the aggregate in each type of channel being integrally joined through the openings 30 in the side walls 16 so that the aggregate in the channels 14 can be said to be keyed in place to the aggregate in the open top channels 12. It is, of course, contemplated. that if desired, aggregate could completely fill the open bottom channels 14 so as to be co-planar with bottom 18 of the channel 12.

In use, the panels of the invention are first manufactured as above described in a suitable factory and as completed they are stored against future need. When required at a building site, the panels are removed from storage as necessary and shipped to their place of use where unskilled labor then merely lays the panels between previously installed supporting transverse members. As one panel is installed, the next is assembled thereto by engaging the channel 26 thereof with the fin 28 of the previously installed panel. If desired, the perforate closure plates 36 can be installed before or after the assembly of the roof or ceiling. In many instances it will be preferable to install these after completion of the ceiling since this not only facilitates handling of the panels during installation but in some cases the air spaces provided in the open-bottom channels 14 will serve as conduit space for electrical cables, pipes, etc. and some or all of these channels may also serve as conduits for forced air heating or cooling.

It is contemplated that the panels of the invention can serve as roof members between the exterior of the building and the interior of the room. Under these circumstances, a coating of waterproofing paint or filler would be applied uniformly over the exterior surface of the roof. Other than this operation, no other installations or applications of materials or structural devices would be required, though it would be understood that the assembled panels would be joined as necessary, as by spot welding or the like, to the transverse panel supporting members.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that the present invention provides a simple, easily installed unitary heat and sound insulated roof or ceiling panel which is readily prefabricated for future use as required. In addition, it eliminates a major portion of the expensive and time consuming installation operations of paneled roofs or ceilings as accomplished heretofore. It will be apparent, of course, that the panel described herein is susceptible of various modifications and such modifications are intended to be within the purview of the invention without departing, however, from the scope or spirit of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A prefabricated roof or ceiling panel comprising a metal sheet corrugated to provide alternate substantially collinear downwardly open ridges and upwardly open valleys, common inclined side walls between said ridges and valleys, said side walls diverging with respect to each other in the direction of the openings of said ridges and valleys, said side walls having openings therethrough adjacent the top of said ridges, a unitary body of cast cementitious, light weight, heat and sound insulating material substantially entirely filling each of said upwardly open valleys and partially filling the upper end of each of said downwardly open ridges, said material in said valleys being integrally joined with the material in said ridges through said openings in said common side walls, and a perforate plate closing the open lower end of each of said downwardly open ridges to provide a space between the bottom of said material partially filling said ridges and the top of said perforate plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,998,422 McNeil et al. Apr. 16, 1935 2,007,374 Kuehne July 9, 1935 2,142,164 Young et al. Jan. 3, 1939 2,357,560 Taforo Sept. 5, 1944 2,476,135 Colburn July 12, 1949 2,616,283 Branstrator et al Nov. 4, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 752,907 France July 31, 1933 OTHER REFERENCES Concrete, page 31, July 1957, 

